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The Synthesis module requires students to produce a ’synthesis’ - broadly defined as the process of combining objects or ideas into a complex whole; the combination or whole produced by such a process (hence ’synthesise’); a process of producing a compound by a chemical reaction or series of reactions (hence ’synthetic’). It is also used in Philosophy to describe the unification of a concept with another not contained in it; and most famously, the final stage in the Hegelian dialectic to resolve the contradiction between thesis and antithesis (where ‘thesis’ refers to the placing or setting, proposition, theme of dissertation). You are asked to resolve this contradiction (temporarily, for the sake of presentation) through a presentation of research materials.

It is expected that the work for this module will form part of the research and development stage for future work - and most importantly towards the masters ‘Project’ module.

*Syllabus*

Students are expected to develop an informed sense of their own practice in this module, and prepare research and development materials towards an ambitious final masters ‘project’. In support of this, inputs will investigate a variety ways of ‘knowing’ - from activities of ‘making’ to more conventional academic (qualitative and quantitative) distinctions between the fields of art and science. The aim is to present an interdisciplinary field of inquiry and practice appropriate to digital media, and it is expected that students will begin to formulate ideas towards future work (applying and challenging the traditional distinctions between arts and sciences towards a hybrid practice).

For those taking the ‘Project’ module, it is expected that the work for this module will form part of the research and development stage for this larger work. It will contribute early thinking towards written work (bibliography, etc) and background thinking towards the practical aspects. This will be informed by a ‘literature search’ in the first term where students are expected to compile relevant resources into a collage of found materials (to be handed in at the end of the first term).

The module will proceed through the sharing of resources and case studies leading to individual student project work and online tutorials. Students are expected to take an active part in dialogue as part of the course and offer ideas in the spirit of open debate as well as offer feedback and constructive criticism to others. Students are expected to join one or two mail lists to keep abreast of current issues and debates. For instance, it is expected that issues around immateriality, the knowledge economy, intellectual property and open systems will be key considerations. The idea is that students are able to place their practice in a broader cultural context through the tasks undertaken in this module.

A series of seminar presentations will take place in support of this work addressing ideas related broadly to immateriality and research. The first of these will take place in the introductory session, with the following delivered at advertised times.

1. TRANSDISCIPLINARITY

A general introduction to the trend for art-science collaborations and research agendas.
Reading:
Stephen Wilson (2002) ‘Introduction, Methodology, Definitions and Theoretical Overview’, in _Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science and Technology_, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 1-48, http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/links/wilson.artlinks2.html
Notes:
http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/seminars/synthesis//seminar1.rtf

2. RESEARCH UNDER COGNITIVE CAPITALISM

Under contemporary conditions, knowledge is treated like any other manufactured goods; ‘immaterial products’ are turned into ‘material products’; artists are interested in research not only as method but also as subject-matter, using irony and pseudo-research methods to make critical comment.
Reading:
The Institute for Applied Autonomy (2005) ‘Engaging Ambivalence: Interventions in Engineering Culture’, in Geoff Cox & Joasia Krysa, eds. _Engineering Culture_, New York: Autonomedia, pp. 95-105, (http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/DB/DB02/IAA.pdf).
Notes:
http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/seminars/synthesis/seminar2.rtf

3. CREATIVE WORK

The relations of production have been extended to include the work of people and machines; both the programer and program can be seen to work, and the possibility of a machinic praxis arises from this. Could we speculate on machinic research?
Reading:
Gilles Deleuze & Félix Guattari (1990 [1972]) ‘The Desiring Machines’, in _Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia_, trans. Robert Hurley et al, London: Athlone, pp. 1-50.
Notes:
http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/seminars/synthesis/seminar3.rtf

4. KNOW-HOW

Immaterial labour refers to the way in which labour has become more immaterial, collective and communicative, more creative and cognitive; general intellect refers to technological expertise, organisation and virtuosity.
Reading:
Maurizio Lazzarato (2004) ‘General Intellect: Towards an Inquiry into Immaterial Labour’, trans. Ed Emery, [first published in _Common Sense_] http://multitudes.samizdat.net/article.php3?id_article=1498
Notes:
http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/seminars/synthesis/seminar4.rtf

5. OPEN SOURCE KNOWLEDGE

The contradictions of free software and open systems; the link between free labour and the ‘gift economy’; the public sphere and the commons. How do these concerns affect research?
Reading:
Trebor Scholz (2006) ‘The Participatory Challenge’, in Joasia Krysa, ed. _Curating Immateriality_, New York: Autonomedia, pp. 189-207, http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/texts/DB/DB03/Scholz.pdf
Notes:
http://www.anti-thesis.net/contents/seminars/synthesis/seminar5.rtf

FURTHER READING:
Roy Ascott (2003 [1964]) ‘The Construction of Change’, Cambridge Opinion 41, 37-42, in Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Nick Montfort, eds. _The New Media Reader_, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 128-132 (http://www.newmediareader.com/).
Tim Berners-Lee et al (2003 [1994]) ‘The World Wide Web’, in Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Nick Montfort, eds. _The New Media Reader_, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 792-798 (http://www.newmediareader.com/).
Manuel Castells (1996) _The Rise of the Network Society_, (Volume 1 of _The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture_), Oxford: Blackwell.
Nick Dyer-Witheford (1999) _Cyber-Marx: Cycles and Circuits of Struggle in High-Technology Capitalism_, Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Nick Dyer-Witheford (2005) ‘Cognitive Capitalism and the Contested Campus’, in Geoff Cox & Joasia Krysa, eds. _Engineering Culture_, New York: Autonomedia, pp. 71-93.
Maurizio Lazzarato (1996) ‘Immaterial Labour’, trans. Paul Colilli & Ed Emery, in Paolo Virno & Michael Hardt, eds. _Radical Thought in Italy_, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, pp. 132-146.
Lawrence Lessig (2004) _Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity_, http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf/
Lawrence Liang (2004) _Guide to Open Content licenses_, Rotterdam: Piet Zwart Institute, http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/pubsfolder/opencontent/view
Marcel Mauss (1970) _The Gift: Forms and Functions of Exchange in Archaic Societies_, trans. Ian Cunnison, London: Cohen & West.
Armin Medosch (2004) ‘Society in Ad-Hoc Mode: Decentralised, Self-Organising, Mobile’, in Geoff Cox & Joasia Krysa, eds. _Economising Culture_, New York: Autonomedia, pp. 135-160.
Richard M. Stallman (2002) _Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman_, Joshua Gay, ed. Free Software Foundation, http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/
Tiziana Terranova (2004 [2000]) ‘Free Labour’, in _Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age_, London: Pluto Press. pp. 73-97 (http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/technocapitalism/voluntary).
Norbert Wiener (2003 [1954]) ‘Men, Machines, and the World About’, in Noah Wardrip-Fruin & Nick Montfort, eds. _The New Media Reader_, Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 67-72 (http://www.newmediareader.com/). EDIT

*Task*

You are expected to develop an informed sense of your own practice in this module. You should familiarise yourself with the field in which you think you are operating in, and be able to answer to position your practice accordingly.

These are the required tasks for this module:

1. Literature Search

Students are required to do a literature search of their chosen subject area and present this in an appropriate form - imagined to be either a PDF, Wiki or Blog - including images and key texts that inform the research (30% of the mark).

The deadline for this is Friday 19/12/2008 at midnight, when it should be available online.

2. Seminar

Students will make a 20 minute seminar presentation - using audio-visual materials (40% of the mark). Notes and supporting materials should be available online with references including bibliography and web links.

3. Project proposal

The above should form the basis of a proposal for the final Project module (approx. 1500 words) that makes a clear case for an arts, science or research approach that refers to the choice of MA, MSc or MRes awards (this makes up 30% of the mark). (If you are doing the MRes route, this is a chance to retrospectively rework your proposal.)

The proposal should include the following:
� Title of project
� Name of student and any collaborators
� Short statement on your current practice
� Description of proposed project
� Technical description and production process
� Brief description of conceptual motivation
� Possible location for the project
� Briefly argue choice of MA or MSc award for this work
� Timeline for realisation of project
� Budget
� Additional supporting information
� Proposed thesis title
� Proportion of written/practical element
� Initial bibliography for thesis
� Short description/abstract of thesis
� What is the research question you pose?

The deadline for this is 15/05/09 at midnight. The seminar presentations will take place in the meeting session after this deadline.

Ran a workshop and Plymouth Art Centre today with some young artists. Using gps data and linking it into Google maps, we documented the social exchanges that take place on a typical Saturday morning in and around Plymouth. You can see the fruit of their labours here.

I’ve been a bit lapse in updating my blog but here’s my thoughts and research.

I had originally been interested in exploring games as a metaphor for software development considering my love of football but the more I read, the more I became interested in video games being used as development software. I was already aware of machinima following on from my attempts at it last year but I was quite keen to explore other avenues. Something that started to appeal was a practice called sonichima; producing generative audio from playing a video game. Not being much of a gamer, I thought it would be fun to make a piece of ‘music’ now and then practice so that I became more adept at the game and then make another piece, almost like turning the game into a musical instrument. However what I discovered was that it didn’t really have much of an impact on the improvement of the sound generated.

Following on from this, I did more research and was particularly interested in Alison Mealy’s project Unreal Art and Julian Oliver and Steven Pickles’ project q3apd. They used different games but each had a common technique; that of making maps so that they had more control over the outcome. Therefore I decided that I would try the same using the level editor of Unreal Tournament. Effectively working backwards in my opinion, I worked out the locations where my bot needed to be so that the x and y coordinates logged into the system file would generate the required note in my Processing script - or at least as close as possible to be fairly recognizable. To hear the results and to loadup your own UT system log and make music, follow the link below.

Unreal Soundz

Video Games as a Production Tool readme

So s-os started last night at Plymouth Arts Centre and provides an operating system for the social life of Plymouth. As the site says “Whilst town planners and architects model the ‘physical’ City and Highways Department’s model the ‘temporal’ ebb and flow of traffic in and around the City, S-OS will model the ‘invisible’ social exchanges of the City’s inhabitants. Plymouth Arts Centre will be converted into a ‘Central Processing Unit’ to run S-OS as a RealLife Social Operating System, generating creative interventions and strategic manifestations on, by and for the citizens of Plymouth.”

My contribution to it is sosHappis which is a mobile phone app that measures your level of happiness. Based on Opta stats used to measure a footballer’s performance within a match, you simply pick the indicators that have happened to you on the day and your personal happindex is generated. You can then load in onto the main server and an overall figure for the city is calculated. Download it from here and give it a go.

The exhibition runs until 6th April, more information can be found here.

Just got back from visiting an exhibition of Cory Arcangel’s work at Spacex. I really liked I Shot Andy Warhol which he made by modding Hogan’s Alley on a Nintendo cartridge. In the game, the player has to shoot Andy Warhol and avoid hitting the Pope, Flavor Flav and Colonel Sanders. Other pieces on show were:

Colors where he plays the film Colors one line of pixels at a time

a couple thousand short films about Glenn Gould which uses YouTube clips of amateur musicians to recreate Bach’s Goldberg Variations

Sans Simon which is a video where he edited out Paul Simon by covering up the singer with his hand

Two Keystone Projectors which is 2 projectors who have had their displays distorted by altering their keystoning and displaying the blue screen normally seen when a VCR is empty

The Bruce Springsteen Glockenspiel Addendum which is a remix of Springsteen’s Born to Run album with added glockenspiel. The whole remix was given away free at the exhibition.

For my project, I have decided to revisit something that I had initially looked at some time ago. Still keeping with the theme of gaming, I’ve decided to drop the idea of using a real-world game or a sport to generate the digital in favour of using a computer game as an instrument or even an orchestra to generate sound. I have always liked the work of Alison Mealey who uses Unreal Tournament to generate art. Some of her work can be seen in this interview with artificial.dk - http://www.artificial.dk/articles/alison.htm. She uses the positions of the bots within the game to draw coloured circles and every time there is a death in the game she uses it to draw a black circle. I have also liked and have been inspired by the work of Friedrich Kirschner and his person2184 series of films which, as with Alison, he made using Unreal Tournament. Unlike her though, he uses the inbuilt editor to construct the set and then plays and records the film within the game. With both of them, I like how they use the game as the tool for their work which is something I want to explore.

I want to extract the data from a live game and feed it into PD or Max/MSP to generate sound. I’m also keen to explore the idea of “learning” the game as you would an instrument. I’m not a particularly strong gamer and so it could be interesting to hear the sounds made at the start of project before I learn to play and compare them to the sounds made once I’ve mastered it.

I’ve just had a brilliant day playing with an electron microscope. I took a blade of grass in as a representation of the space I’d just mapped. I got some pretty good pictures as you can see below. As there was moisture in the grass, we couldn’t film it in a complete vacuum which is how everyone’s was shot but in a low vacuum which was still pretty close to one compared to normal atmospheric conditions. The reason for having to do that was the moisture was evaporating as I was playing with the microscope and so that grass was essentially decaying. I mainly took photos so that the detail was fairly visible but I was also wanted to see how close I could get before the photo could be of anything and managed to get to 600 times.

Ok, still thinking about a game but this time I’m considering using a chess match. I think the strategies that are used in chess could be quite interesing when applied to software development. I’ve recently read about a chess game Duchamp played with John Cage at a concert called Reunion where the music was produced by a series of photoelectric cells underneath each square of the chessboard which were sporadically triggered during normal game play. I had originally considered just mapping the moves but maybe I could hack one of those chess computers and connect it up to a “normal” computer to register the moves and generate the code dynamically.

Been thinking about my project and I’m really getting into the idea of using a game to generate code. I’m considering using a sport as I like the idea of the analog creating the digital. Maybe use the plays that take place during a football match can dictate what happens to some data. How or what the data will be I’ve yet to decide upon.

I’m quite interested in football (yeah, thought that might come as a bit of a shock) and I like how fans always reminisce about the old days. Hot on the outside frozen on the inside pies, tepid bovril, old players, terraces, the list is endless and yet football has moved on so much since those days. Not just in the game itself but the whole business of football has exploded to the point that the match itself is almost secondary.

Below is my attempt at mapping these “additional activities” by including elements of the past and the present.

A Game of Two Halves 6.9Mb